| Buying an mp3 player | | | | So you ask, why would you bother with solid state |
| It seems everyone has one these days, walking the | | | | memory? Well, it's usually a matter of price, you can |
| dog, traveling work, at the gym, the idea of carrying | | | | pick up a 1Gb solid state mp3 player for under |
| your entire music library with you everywhere you go | | | | £50 these days but hard disk players start at |
| is appealing to most of us, but what is this mp3 thing | | | | around £130. |
| anyway? | | | | Memory Size |
| What is mp3? | | | | The size of an mp3 depends on two things, the quality |
| MP3, an abbreviation for Moving Picture Experts | | | | and the length of the track. A good rule of thumb |
| Group layer III, is a technology that allows audio data to | | | | when deciding what size you'll need is you'll usually get |
| fit into a much smaller space than it was originally, with | | | | about 1 min for every Megabyte (Mb), or |
| little or no loss of audio quality. Usually raw audio data | | | | approximately 200 songs for each 512Mb you have of |
| is very large and unmanageable and is especially | | | | memory at an average to good recording quality, at |
| difficult to deal with on portable devices due to the lack | | | | that size you'll be able to store around of course you |
| of storage available (your standard audio CD fits at | | | | can get much more, or less by altering the quality of |
| most 80 minutes of raw audio data on it), but mp3 | | | | the track. Another term you'll see around is a Gigabyte |
| allows the storage of about 10 times the raw audio | | | | (Gb), a Gigabyte is a measure of Megabytes (Gb), |
| data into memory of the same size (that's over 800 | | | | where 1Gb = 1024Mb. And if you're wondering why its |
| minutes onto the same 80 minute audio CD). | | | | 1024Mb and not 1000mb... ask your IT support! |
| So what's WMA? | | | | I take my mp3 player everywhere with me and only |
| WMA files are Microsoft's equivalent of mp3 files, they | | | | usually hook it up to my computer to add new music |
| offer slightly better compression (more music for your | | | | about once a week and like to have as much on there |
| MB) and some additional built in copy-write protection | | | | as possible, so I opted for a Sony 20Gb hard disk |
| for those over cautious record labels out there. | | | | model, but if you simply want some entertainment |
| More and more mp3 players support WMA files these | | | | while at the gym you might want to save yourself a |
| days so it's worth looking out for as there is a growing | | | | few quid and go for a cheaper solid state unit. |
| amount of music available for download on the Internet | | | | Battery Life |
| in WMA format. | | | | Another thing to look out for when buying an mp3 |
| Audio Quality | | | | player is the battery life, until fairly recently the average |
| Ever since mp3's started to show their face in the | | | | battery life for one of these units was around 4-5 |
| early 90's there's been a constant argument about | | | | hours max, but new developments from companies |
| mp3 audio quality, with many strongly feeling mp3 | | | | like Sony and Microsoft mean you can now get a |
| compressions adversely affects the quality of the | | | | battery life of 30 or even 40 hours between charges. |
| sound, whereas others argue that mp3 technology | | | | Be aware, some very popular units only sport an |
| only removes sound data that cannot be heard by the | | | | average battery life of about 4 hours, this can be very |
| human ear, and so could not be of any lesser quality. | | | | annoying, make sure you check the facts before you |
| I've not personally noticed any real difference between | | | | buy. |
| the two, with the exception of badly compressed | | | | Portable Storage |
| music files, although I can imagine on a fairly large | | | | Many players these days allow not only the storage of |
| setup for example, some of the missing sound low | | | | audio files but also any other computer files you might |
| frequency sound waves could possibly be missed | | | | want, connected simply with a USB cable, so it's can |
| because although you may not hear the sounds, you'd | | | | be a handy way to transfer your files between home |
| definitely be feeling them! | | | | and work. |
| What to look for in an mp3 player. | | | | So what's next? |
| Memory Type | | | | As mp3 player technology becomes advances there |
| There are currently two types of memory available in | | | | are more and more features being added to these |
| mp3 players, solid state and hard disk. Solid state | | | | units, some later generations of IPod for example have |
| memory is usually very fast and does not suffer from | | | | built in digital photo albums; you can download your |
| skips, where hard drive memory is like a small version | | | | pictures and flick through them on the move. Whereas |
| of your personal computers main disk storage, | | | | other units have incorporated analogue radio and even |
| although these are not supposed to suffer from | | | | DAB digital radios receivers. On a side note, mp3 |
| skipping, I've personally known this to be a problem on | | | | player sound quality is only as good as the |
| certain models during a brisk walk or jog. | | | | headphones you listen with, I'd personally recommend |
| The main difference between the two is the size | | | | spending a bit of time and money here, the difference |
| available, solid state players are currently ranging | | | | in sound quality and clarity you'll get from a pair of |
| between about 256mb and 2Gb, whereas hard disk | | | | Shure e3c earphones for example far outweighs the |
| players have an average storage capacity of around | | | | cost of around £99. |
| 20Gb, over 10 times larger than the solid state models. | | | | |